Where Did Memorial Day Come From?

Unique Finds MN
May 20, 2015
3 min read

As Memorial Day weekend approaches and many people have travel plans for the long weekend, let us not forget the true reason for the extra day off.

The annual observance of Memorial Day in the U.S., which is celebrated on the last Monday of May, is held to commemorate the death of men and women who died rendering service to the U.S. Armed Forces and in defense to their country. Americans observe this special day by taking time to visit memorials or cemeteries, having family gatherings, and joining parades. An American flag has been placed into each grave in national cemeteries which is done by many volunteers. The event which is a federal holiday, was originally called the Decoration Day, following the American Civil War to remember the death of Confederate and Union soldiers. The federal holiday was made official in 1971. It was in the twentieth century that the Memorial Day was lengthened to recognize the death of all Americans in wars.

Memorial Day weekend serves as the start of the summer vacation months. Memorial Day has also become a day when many people go to see the graves of their loved ones, regardless of whether they have been in the military or not. The celebration of the holiday also became a long weekend that is spent to shopping, trips, and national media events.

In the early customary practices of Memorial Day, it is a practice to decorate a soldier’s grave with flowers. There is an evident documentation that women in Savannah, Georgia adorned the graves of soldiers as early as 1862. It was the American Civil War that claimed thousand American lives which demanded the establishment of the first national cemeteries in the country. It was in the late 1860’s that Americans from various cities started to pay tributes to the country’s fallen soldiers, adorning their graves with flowers and offering prayers. In spite of the origin of the unclear tradition, the federal government made a declaration in 1966 that Waterloo, New York will be the official Memorial Day’s birthplace. When the first Memorial Day was celebrated in Waterloo on May 5, 1866, all business establishments in the state were closed and residents adorned the soldiers’ graves with flags and flowers.

Based on the history, the organization leader for the Union Civil War veterans, General John A. Logan, declared the day of May 5, 1862 as the nationwide day of remembering comrades who died in combat. Logan states that the chosen date of the Decoration Day was picked since it was not a recurrence of the date of any particular battle. During the first Decoration Day at the Arlington National Cemetery, General James Garfield made a speech. Also, almost 5,000 participants adorned the graves of 20,000 Confederate and Union soldiers that were buried there. Some Northern States held the same remarkable event by making the Decoration Day an official state holiday. Meanwhile, Southern States honored the same tradition after the World War I.

The evolution of the Memorial Day came to be popular as it was originally honored as Decoration Day. The U.S. finds itself to be involved in conflict as the federal holiday moves to commemorate the American military personnel who have passed away in the war. It notes that for many years, the continued observance of Memorial Day on May 30, the chosen date by which Logan had selected, has been changed in 1968 when the Congress passed the Uniform Monday Act, the act which set Memorial Day to be commemorated in the last Monday of the month of May to be able to make a long weekend for employees. The act took effect in 1971.

One must not confuse Memorial Day with Veterans Day since the two significant occasions are different. It should be remembered that the Memorial Day is the commemoration of military men and women in combat, while the Veterans Day is the celebration of the services of all military veterans in the U.S., both for the living and the dead.